As he had done earlier with Lev’s cat during his first jaunt of the night, Elmer decided to once again use the spiritual essence of silver, which represented force, to terrorize his current opponent.

He filled the air around the werewolve’ed Ned with a substantial amount of it, forcing the young boy to visibly shiver as trickles of sweat instantly found their way out of his pores despite the chilly ambience of winter’s night.

Still—even obviously frightened out of his wits—Ned didn’t move an inch away from his spot. He neither tried to run nor fight back, irregardless of how Elmer had made himself seem a being that should be feared for eons to come. All the boy did was whimper inaudibly, and that outcome dumbfounded Elmer to a shocking degree.

But he did not dawdle on that. Whatever the boy’s reason was for remaining stagnant to his position, it was not something he could leisurely decipher at the moment. Sarah and Ted were already approaching him in full force.

Well, at least he was able to keep one person from engaging.

Because of Elmer’s position at the left window of the Hanky household’s bungalow being on the same line as the window to the right, apparently Hanky could not fire without exposing himself to danger—and maybe ruining their team tactics.

It seemed the man had no choice but to stand his ground regardless of what was happening.

And that gave Elmer the slight opportunity he needed. He was not yet sure of if he was fast enough to actually dodge a bullet, so he was not of the mind to risk it; furthermore, he had to take out one person now while he had the opening. There was no way he would lose this chance.

In that instant Elmer’s awareness fired a rocket, signaling him of the imminent danger approaching from the pair of mother and son barrelling at him.

Granted, they were not stronger than he was, but they could still cause him substantial damage if they surrounded him here on the small bungalow’s porch. There was also the fact that he was further causing his spirituality to wane by tapping into the essence of silver.

Knowing he had to end things quickly and swiftly with Ned, Elmer profoundly inflated the amount of essence of silver he had wrapped Ned with, causing his own vision to turn blurry for a moment and his standing posture to falter. But at the same time, his desired result came into fruition.

Ned had begun to hyperventilate and his stare turned glassy as tears poured out of his eyes.

All of a sudden, the boy let out an uncontrollable screech with a quaking voice, and then sagged downwards slowly. A second later his eyes rolled into the back of his head, leaving only a white canvas in its place.

Elmer felt sorry for Ned as he turned off the spirituality essence he’d activated while the boy’s body fell with a thud to the floor within the bungalow.

“You!” Sarah shouted, snapping Elmer back to the matter at hand, as she finally came within striking length of him. She instantly swung her blade into an uppercut with a two-handed grip.

Unable to catch his breath from his now extremely depleted spirituality, Elmer simply pounced backwards, slightly avoiding Sarah’s swing as his trenchcoat’s storm flap was caught barely in the strike; that ragged outfit of his was turned even more ragged.

At least, he had avoided Ted’s claw assault from above his head unscathed.

“Ned!” Ted instantly turned his attention to his brother, not even dwelling for a moment on his attack having been easily escaped once again. “Wake up! What are you doing?” He jumped over the sill of the window and joined his brother in the bungalow. As for Sarah, her unenthusiastic mien had shifted into one of fury now.

Elmer heaved out a sigh in response to the ensuing family distraught of his opponents. “I tried to warn you,” he said. “There’s no way you all can defeat me.”

Stolen story; please report.

He sounded boastful, but he was right—he knew he was right. After all, he was an Echelon 9. People who weren’t Ascenders obviously didn’t stand a chance against him—extractors or not.

Maybe they would have if he was still a Baseborn without any experience. But he was far from that now. Moreover, he had no choice but to win here tonight. It was a must. It was important.

I’m slowly becoming poor again; I can’t have that…

“There’s no way we can give you what you want too,” Hanky told Elmer after a second of silence with gritted teeth.

Elmer’s expression slackened beneath his mask as he tilted his head slightly to his left.

It was obvious that the situation had finally become clear to Hanky, unlike his wife. Although, what was that statement?

“Why? You don’t have the location of the underground cartel?” Elmer asked brazenly.

“No. We do.” Hanky paused and took a glance at the location of the fuming Sarah. “But on the other hand, neither of us will be alive to tell anyone after you.”

A heavy feeling momentarily pressed down on Elmer’s stomach. But just as quickly as it came so did he push it aside.

He furrowed his brows as he said while feigning a lack of emotion, “I’m sorry. But I’ll only be leaving here with that piece of information.” Hanky grimaced in part frustration and part spite. “And if you lie,” Elmer continued. “I’ll be the one to do the killing.”

Elmer had kept his stand, but somewhere in his head he was silently searching for a way to attain the information he needed without plunging Hanky’s family into demise.

After all, even though he had paid for it, he wouldn’t have been able to become a certified Ascender without Hanky. In some way he felt like he owed them a bit of remorse.

Seeing as Hanky was more frightened of the underground cartel as a whole more than he was of the current danger before him, it was easy for Elmer to discern that whoever was heading that illegal faction was an Ascender of a high caliber. Maybe in the Upper Echelon ranks, like that young man, Hunter, he had met at the Black market?

Regardless, Elmer decided to stick it in his head that he was weaker than the head of the underground cartel. And if that was true then whoever that person was they were either a corrupted one, just like him, but on a higher level, or they were an actual licensed Ascender and engaging in activities the Church deemed illegal.

There was even the possibility that they might be the bounty hunter seeking him.

Wait… Now that I think about it, were they the ones who made my seal of approval for my certification license?

At that moment Elmer had an idea. But Sarah did not let him settle on it as her rage finally toppled over.

Understandable, it was. He had harmed her son after all, one way or the other.

She came at him alone while Ted tended to his brother. Her swings no longer bearing precision or organization. They were just being thrown around in a mindless fit in an attempt to deal a blow to the enemy of their wielder.

It was almost like Sarah was a completely different person than who she was a couple of minutes ago.

Elmer believed the situation to be perfect though. He had used up almost all his spirituality to knock out Ned, and as such he was left huffing intensely at every Sarah's swing he evaded.

If he let the onslaught of her attacks drag out any longer, he would fall victim to one strike surely.

Furthermore, even though it was obvious that Hanky could now disseminate the difference in power levels, Elmer was a hundred percent sure that if a chance was still presented to the man he would take it. He could not let it get to that stage.

As an overhead swing from the panting Sarah took a moment to split the moon in half as it came down upon him, Elmer casually sidestepped to his side with minimal difficulty, and dipped his unused paper and pen back into his right pocket. Then he sent the side of his palm into Sarah’s neck, rendering her unconscious instantly as she dropped to her knees while still firmly gripping her sword.

Elmer’s gaze flashed towards the somewhat despondent Hanky, and in the next second he was standing with his arms crossed beside the window where the man was lodged wearing his usual hard gaze but this time with a hint of blankness.

“Give me the location, and I will make you a promise,” Elmer voiced roughly in a whisper-like tone.

Hanky scoffed, then smiled dejectedly. “What sort of promise could you make that would take center stage over the life of my family?” He scoffed again. “If you want to kill, just kill me instead. Leave the rest of them alone. They do not know the location of the underground cartel after all. Only I deserve to bear the repercussions of taking that information with me.”

“I see.” Elmer chuckled. “What do we do now though? I don’t intend to kill you, and I don’t want you dead.” Hanky’s gaze instantly squeezed, prompting him to turn to Elmer with a dumbfounded expression. The young boy of eighteen behind the pale mask of ‘the reaper’ smiled. “My promise is quite simple. Your family shall face no harm… Not even from the underground cartel. Not now, not ever.”